"Multicriteria analysis (MCA) has been increasingly used in environmental decision-making to support the identification of suitable courses of action, by integrating factual information coming for example from field surveys or impact modelling, with value-based information collected through stakeholder engagement This book provides an introduction to key concepts of MCA, and a series of case studies that illustrate the application of MCA to a variety of environmental decision-making problems. Topics include Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), protected areas planning and zoning, tourist infrastructures planning, forest restoration and nature conservation. Techniques described in the different cases include GIS-based MCA, sensitivity analysis, optimisation techniques, land suitability analysis, and others. The book provides a compact reference that can be used by researchers as a key resource offering an update and overview of the field, as well as by practitioners and planners/de

cision makers as a source of inspiration for their activity. Additionally, the book will be a suitable textbook for both under and post-graduate courses in a broad range of curricula, including Environmental Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Planning and Architecture, Geography, Economics, Decision Sciences. "}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":769,"3":{"1":0},"11":3,"12":0}">Multicriteria analysis (MCA) has been increasingly used in environmental decision-making to support the identification of suitable courses of action, by integrating factual information coming for example from field surveys or impact modelling, with value-based information collected through stakeholder engagement This book provides an introduction to key concepts of MCA, and a series of case studies that illustrate the application of MCA to a variety of environmental decision-making problems. Topics include Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), protected areas planning and zoning, tourist infrastructures planning

forest restoration and nature conservation. Techniques described in the different cases include GIS-based MCA, sensitivity analysis, optimisation techniques, land suitability analysis, and others. The book provides a compact reference that can be used by researchers as a key resource offering an update and overview of the field, as well as by practitioners and planners/decision makers as a source of inspiration for their activity. Additionally, the book will be a suitable textbook for both under and post-graduate courses in a broad range of curricula, including Environmental Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Planning and Architecture, Geography, Economics, Decision Sciences.

"Essentially, Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) is a method to support decision-making, by exploring the balance between the pros and cons of different alternatives. The comparison of alternatives is based upon a set of explicitly formulated criteria, which represent aspects of the alternatives that need to be taken into account during decision-making. More specifically, MCA assists the decision-making process by framing decision problems, illustrating the performance of the alternatives across all criteria, exploring trade-offs, formulating a decision, and testing its robustness. All this while considering, on the one hand the "analytical" performance of the alternatives across all criteria, and on the other hand the preferences and opinions of the stakeholders involved in the process. Many MCA approaches exist, which differ, inter alia, in terms of computational complexity, level of stakeholder engagement, and time and data requirement. Belton and Stewart (2002BIB-007) present a detailed analysis of the theoretical foundations of different MCA approaches, as well as their comparative strengths and weaknesses. It could be argued that most approaches share the same main stages of the generalized MCA process shown in Figure 1.1 (based on Kiker et al. 2005BIB-088; Geneletti and Ferretti 2015BIB-051), in which a key aspect is the involvement of different actors providing different types of input to the process. The first stage of the MCA process aims at establishing a shared understanding of the decision context, and at structuring the problem. Operationally, it includes defining the objectives of the decision process, identifying possible alternatives to achieve them, and formulating explicit criteria to assess how each alternative contributes to achieving the objectives"--